Cheers & Jeers

Resort group a blessing

A backpack might be the last place a child would expect to find a blessing, but a group in Ocean City is sending children who receive Free and Reduced Meals home on Fridays with backpacks filled with food to carry them through the weekend. Blessings in a Backpack, a national program that has gone local, is based at Atlantic United Methodist Church. It seeks to fill the gap between Friday and Monday for children whose families might not have the resources to provide them food when they're not in school. The children get things like granola bars, mac and cheese and juice boxes. Everyone is invited to get involved. It's simple, inexpensive and it makes the children feel special.

Oyster hatchery fertile ground

The Horn Point Laboratory Oyster Hatchery has produced a record number of oysters this year in its effort to help restore the Chesapeake Bay - more than 880 million of them, to be more precise. The spat were produced as the result of a partnership between the Oyster Recovery Partnership and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and it's the fifth year the facility has produced more than half a billion spat. Horn Point, located near Cambridge on the Choptank River, is a quiet hero in the bay restoration effort, marine research, educational projects and private aquaculture - an eclectic blend of government, nonprofit and private enterprises all aimed at restoring oysters to the bay. The oyster hatchery will be open today for public tours between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Jobs seen in offshore wind

Large-scale development of wind power off the mid-Atlantic coast would, according to a study conducted for the Atlantic Wind Connection and released during the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference in Virginia Beach this week. the Atlantic Wind Connection, backed by Google and other investors, is moving forward with construction of a 380-mile power line to enable as much as 7,000 megawatts of power to be produced via offshore wind farms stretching from Virginia to New Jersey. The study estimates 110,000 jobs will be created directly and another 50,000 due to increased economic activity. At this point, it's all speculation because the United States produces no offshore wind power. But if the industry takes off, Delmarva is ideally situated .

Irresponsible dog owners

Another tragedy involving out-of-control dogs mauling a victim - in this case, a family pet that was taken from the safety of its yard and killed by Great Danes roaming a residential neighborhood in Bishopville. By the time the 9-pound dog's owner realized what had happened and called animal control, it was too late to save the pet. The Great Danes have been deemed potentially dangerous and their owner has been issued a citation, but unless there is another incident, they will not even be required to wear muzzles. There are right ways and wrong ways to go about enforcing animal control laws, but safety, not punishment, should be the primary aim of any law or enforcement effort. In this case, it will be too little, too late if there is a next victim. Responsible dog owners could do much to alleviate this kind of suffering.

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Cheers & Jeers

A backpack might be the last place a child would expect to find a blessing, but a group in Ocean City is sending children who receive Free and Reduced Meals home on Fridays with backpacks filled with